Cancer care from the heart
Seema Singh -
Friday, July 17, 2009 4:50 PM
It may sound a little over the top but what do you call it when a private, for-profit hospital founder and a heart surgeon insists on keeping the radiotherapy cost at his new hospital lower than the government hospital in the city.
That is the story of the new 1500-bed cancer hospital that two entrepreneurs in Bangalore - Dr Devi Shetty and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw helped launch today-Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer Centre. Kiran has invested her personal wealth (she is quick to tell everybody, ‘Biocon has nothing to do with this') and wants to see a whole new paradigm of cancer treatment evolve in the country, which is "not impulsive but comprehensive and planned according to each patient's need".
Tall order there...cancer is estimated to kill more people than heart attack in a few years.
It's also taking economy of scale to new limits-if Shetty could do it with heart treatment, why not with cancer? That was Kiran's condition, says Shetty, who agrees that it's easier to lower costs (with high volumes) in cancer as the recurring cost is less than in cardiac surgeries where implants cost a lot.
In cancer the cost accrues primarily due to expensive equipment which can cost up to Rs 30 crore each. "Most of the machines need to be maintained round the clock so we'll undertake therapy 24 hours-I can provide radiotherapy to poor patients at 2 am," he says, explaining how he plans to bring the cost down.
In his characteristic style Shetty said ‘no patient will be turned away".
We'll keep a track of how this venture progresses...
For a disease that signals only morbidity and bankruptcy for the not-so-privileged families, this venture, which intends to have satellite services in different locations since Shetty's hospitals anyway run one of the largest telemedicine programmes in the world, can bring some hope.
For now, it's free screening season at MSCC.